Kieftenbeld in demand

Sunderland and Hull are planning January bids for Maikel Kieftenbeld, according to the Mirror.

The Dutch holding midfielder Kieftenbeld,27, is out of contract at Birmingham in the summer after joining from FC Groningen in 2015.

He nearly joined Championship rivals Derby on deadline day in August but the deal collapsed due to red tape.

He has since broken back into the Blues side and has played a key role in helping Steve Cotterill’s struggling side win back to back matches.

But his long-term future remains in doubt and new Tigers boss Nigel Adkins has been to watch him recently.

Integrating style

Steve Cotterill is optimistic Birmingham City have started to integrate the many disparate playing styles brought to the club during the summer’s transfer trolley-dash.

The Blues manager has given an intriguing insight into one of the problems he faced when taking over at St Andrew’s as he has tried to build a team out of players recruited by his four predecessors.

Tuesday’s victory over Reading, combined with the home win against Leeds on December 30 and some recently improved performances, pointed to progress on that front.

But Cotterill has spoken of the difficulties melding so many players - 13 new faces arrived in the summer - into a cohesive unit.

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“When I came here last year and had three games it was easy to coach the players that were here,” he said.

“They were a medium-to-low block team that wanted to counter attack.

“Then what’s happened is probably in the summer there was lots of players recruited from other teams that had different styles of football.

“The hardest thing here is trying to get where I want to be.

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“The reason there hasn’t been drastic changes with any of that is sometimes you have got to do a little bit of what the older players are used to - and then try and incorporate a little bit of what the new players are used to - until you can get it where they are all on the same page.

“When you think about last year’s low-block team, Birmingham have been like that for three or four years, a 30-35-per cent possession team working off the counter attack.

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“[They] Had a goalscorer in Clayton Donaldson that would score his mandatory 12-15 goals a season that would probably get you a really good chunk of points.

“All of a sudden you have had other players that have come in this season that have played for possession-based teams, they want to spread out and then others don’t.

“Then some want to play high, some want to play deep - and it’s trying to get that how we want to play. I am hoping that we are starting to get there.”

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All you need to know about Blues now

However, despite six points in two days and a first away win of the campaign Cotterill is not getting carried away just yet.

Blues are still trying to make up ground lost in 2017 when they replaced a play-off challenge with a relegation battle and set about digging themselves another Championship hole.

“We have got to keep some equilibrium in our football club at the moment,” he continued.

“Don’t get too down, because you can’t afford to get too down, don’t get too high - that’s for the supporters to enjoy.

“It’s been a tough period, in my opinion we’ve deserved more points in a period of time I have been here, but between now and the end of the season we may get a point somewhere that we haven’t deserved.

“We may get three points somewhere that we definitely haven’t deserved. I will look forward to them as well.”

Recognised

Steve Cotterill has been recognised by the EFL after being named manager of their Team of the Week .

The Birmingham City boss oversaw Blues’ first away win of the season on Tuesday, as goals from Jacques Maghoma and Sam Gallagher gave them a 2-0 victory at Reading.

That came just three days after Birmingham ended a seven-game winless run in the final match of 2017.

The EFL explained: “It’s now back-to-back victories for Cotterill’s Blues, after they saw off Reading 2-0 at the Madejski Stadium.

“The win additionally moved Birmingham off the foot of the table, following their home defeating of Leeds United last time out.”

Blues remain in the Championship relegation zone but Cotterill insists recent results are a sign of improved performances and growing confidence at a club which endured a disastrous 2017.

Not only was the victory at Reading Birmingham’s first on their travels this term, it was significant for a number of other reasons.

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Blues scored twice in the same game for the first time since August, they scored their first set-piece goal of the campaign and registered back to back victories for only the second time in more than a year.

Cotterill was also made manager of the Team of the Week after beating Cardiff in his first game in October.

Also included in the team are Aston Villa’s Robert Snodgrass, who has gone some way to silencing his critics with three goals in two games.

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All you need to know about Blues now

Fry tucks into Villa

Former Birmingham City manager Barry Fry has taken a sensational swipe at Aston Villa owner Tony Xia’s ‘lack of ambition’.

Xia bought the club from Randy Lerner 18 months ago and spent almost £80million across his first two transfer windows in a bid to secure promotion to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

However, Villa finished 13th last season and Xia has had to rein in the spending due to concerns over Financial Fair Play.

Manager Steve Bruce was forced to deal in loans and minimal transfer fees in the summer window and Villa will once again focus on temporary deals this month.

And Fry, now director of football at Peterborough United, has had a pop at Xia ahead of his team’s visit to Villa Park for this weekend’s FA Cup third round tie.

He said: “Villa have been in turmoil since Martin O’Neill left in my opinion. What I am amazed at is the lack of ambition shown by the Villa owner – why buy Villa if you don’t want to take them back to the Premier League?

“They have a great stadium, training ground and a huge fan base – I cannot believe the club is not backing Steve to the hilt.”

Youngster to leave

Birmingham City youngster Ronan Hale is set to join League of Ireland outfit Derry City on loan.

The 19-year-old will spend the rest of the season with the Premier Division outfit having played for Blues’ Under 23s this term.

He will join his brother Rory at The Brandywell who joined from Galway United having previously been a trainee at Aston Villa.

The League of Ireland starts in February and runs through to October but it is thought Hale will return to Blues in the summer.

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(Image: BCFC)

The young striker shot to prominence in his first year at Wast Hills when he plundered 30-plus goals for the Under 18s.

He also earned a call-up to the Republic of Ireland youth set-up, alongside Corey O’Keeffe - but he is yet to make a first team appearance.

He has played ten games and scored three times for the Under 23s this season and endured an injury-disrupted campaign last term.